The Bundesbank’s “Banking supervision in dialogue” symposium ranks among the key forums for banking and financial supervisory topics in Germany. This year’s event in Frankfurt am Main centred around ten years of the SSM, artificial intelligence, and crypto-assets regulation. Speakers included Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz, FINMA CEO Stefan Walter, SSM Chair Claudia Buch (European Central Bank) and Karlheinz Walch (Director General Banking and Financial Supervision, Deutsche Bundesbank).

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel says the German economy is facing major longer-term challenges. The first two challenges ... are the need to decarbonise the economy and the ageing of our society, he argued at a change of office ceremony at the Bundesbank’s Regional Office in Saxony and Thuringia. He hailed last week’s rates cut by the ECB Governing Council as the right decision but advised caution, noting that future economic and price developments were still fraught with uncertainty.

The Bundesbank sees the German economy slowly regaining its footing after a roughly two-year period of weakness. Not only will private consumption gradually pick up again, but export business will also improve again from the second half of the year. “The German economy is extricating itself from the period of economic weakness,” Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said on publication of the current Forecast for Germany. According to the forecast, real gross domestic product (GDP) will rise by a calendar-adjusted 0.3% this year.

The finance ministers and central bank governors of the seven leading western industrial countries (G7) met in Stresa, Italy, to exchange views on current issues. Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel and Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner held a joint press conference at which the main focus was on the development of the global economy and trade, but other topics on the agenda were current affairs and interest rate developments.

Economic output in Germany increased again somewhat of late according to the Bundesbank’s Monthly Report. Benefiting from favourable weather conditions, construction in particular picked up again recently. “Industrial output and exports [also] performed better than had been expected based on the weak demand,” the economists write. However, private consumption remained sluggish in the first quarter. Consumers were unsettled despite the stable labour market and real income growth. Inflation eased only marginally and stood at 2.7% in the first quarter.

How did the ECB Governing Council arrive at its new monetary policy operational framework for the Eurosystem? What principles will be followed when implementing monetary policy in the future? Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel addressed these questions at the 55th Konstanz Seminar on monetary theory and monetary policy. 

This year’s Spring Conference held by the Bundesbank’s Research Centre focused on “Structural changes and the implications for inflation”. A large number of researchers from central banks, universities and other institutions based in Germany and abroad met in Eltville to discuss this topic. Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel spoke in a video message. 

The Bundesbank’s stand at the Europe Festival in Frankfurt am Main attracted a large number of visitors to the Römerhallen. The stand was also where the Bundesbank’s Executive Board, Frankfurt’s Mayor Mike Josef, President of Frankfurt Main Finance Gerhard Wiesheu, as well as City Treasurer Bastian Berghoff and Councillor Eileen O’Sullivan, gathered to make a joint statement for a cosmopolitan Europe and an appeal for citizens to vote in the European elections on 9 June 2024.

How can Europe’s economic integration be deepened and the Capital Markets Union created? What measures could help leverage the potential of the Single Market and strengthen the EU’s competitiveness? These questions were discussed by Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel and former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta at an event hosted by the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE in Frankfurt am Main.

The Banca d’Italia and the Bundesbank organize a meeting between researchers of the two institutions, on topics in financial intermediation and financial stability.